Fitness anyone?

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MrsStarez
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Re: Fitness anyone?

Postby MrsStarez » Thu Jan 17, 2019 5:22 pm

Maybe they meant six, in which case, “a” would work fine!
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Re: Fitness anyone?

Postby Dragon27 » Thu Jan 17, 2019 6:18 pm

IronMike wrote:I guess if anyone here wants a 25% improvement in walking speed*, s/he should learn Welsh.
*math not checked by math-capable person

Yes. If I walked at the speed of 100 meters per minute, then I would walk 800 meters in 8 minutes. But If could finish that distance in 6 minutes, then my speed must be 800/6=133.(3) meters per minute. It's a 33.3% increase in walking speed!
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Re: Fitness anyone?

Postby Iversen » Thu Jan 17, 2019 7:48 pm

I would spend 2 minutes gaping at the Welsh version, and then I would only have 6 minutes left for the actual walk -i.e. all in all 8 minutes as indicated.

PS: how can the two coded squares be identical if they offer explanations in Welsh resp. English?
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Re: Fitness anyone?

Postby Ani » Thu Jan 17, 2019 11:56 pm

In the summer, I listened to FSI or podcasts while hiking which was anywhere from 1-4 hours a day. In between that, I'd do HIIT (which I detest but...) or a kettle bell workout and neither of those are really good to split attention with language learning.

The last few months I was doing a lot more endurance cardio -- running and distance rowing on an erg. Running outside is kind of meditative and I don't like to listen to anything. I used the time on the erg for guilty pleasure TV watching (stuff only available in English) as a reward for all the suffering. In December, it was Versailles. It's amazing how much pain you can ignore when you don't want to turn off the last few minutes of an episode :lol:

I'm thinking after I move, I'll get a tread mill so I can watch French TV and run.
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Re: Fitness anyone?

Postby coldrainwater » Fri Jan 18, 2019 7:15 pm

tldr; I climb stairs and listen when I workout.

Going on three years, we have had a stair climbing group at our corporate office (that I lead). We make about 60-80 flights climbing (up) per workout. On vacation, I often fly to Denver and then head west in Colorado to hike. I do a few of those trips per year and tend to hike 6+ hours per day when I go. I enjoy climbing the 13ers and 14ers that are so abundant in CO and the stair climbing is perfect training for that. I started around 220 lbs and am now sitting at just under 190 lbs. I basically ended up changing my body to match what I enjoy doing and to get the cardiac fitness that I was after. I also find stair climbing to be an exercise that is extremely low risk with respect to injuries and highly sustainable over the years. I have recently added burpies to my routine and do a set of 30-50 depending on my mood, often on days that I miss stairs. I still have a bench and olympic set and also use an overdoor pullup bar and dumbbells, keeping the workouts super simple with a few core movements. I use bench press, chinups and burpies much as Jeff mentioned, making them like mini study breaks.

My language learning helmet with audio is almost always attached. I am definitely not paying max attention. Guessing, I may get 50-80% attention on average. I have had good success following audiobooks and even better success with podcasts. When I initially built my listening habit almost two years ago, I worked out an hour or two per day and that is what established my listening time without fail (tagged the new habit to the old. I worked out, the headphones came with me and were on). Fitness goals are more complelmentary to language learning than anything else in my case.
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Re: Fitness anyone?

Postby MamaPata » Fri Jan 18, 2019 7:52 pm

Post deleted.
Last edited by MamaPata on Sat Jan 19, 2019 8:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Fitness anyone?

Postby Serpent » Fri Jan 18, 2019 9:44 pm

Fitness/weight/health are sensitive topics. Please try to stick to discussing how you manage exercise and learning, and avoid topics like which foods you feel guilty for eating or how much weight you're trying to lose.
Edit: We've had threads about weight that got locked, I hope we won't need to lock this one. The things I mentioned are offtopic since they have nothing to do with language learning.
On a side note, the rules mention that we're against discrimination on the basis of things like physical appearance, body size, disability. (As of now we haven't needed to delete any posts in this thread and I hope it stays that way)
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Re: Fitness anyone?

Postby Iceberg » Mon Jan 21, 2019 3:11 am

What do you do to stay in shape? Do you study your languages while working out? Do you integrate language into working out in other ways? Does language studying get in the way of your fitness? Or vice-versa?


I used to work out regularly for 12 years. I used to train for 3-5 times a week, depending on my time schedule, overtime etc. I also used to walk (never in the gym) around 10 km/day on average, 6 times per week, regardless of the rain, snow, typhoon, earthquakes etc. I was in shape for all my entire life, especially during the past 12 years, until I suffered an accident.

For both walking and working out activities, I have never mixed language learning and physical activities. I usually listen to music on any of my target languages. I don’t read or listen to a podcast because all I want is to forget about everything and everyone temporarily. It is one special time of the day that I reserve solely for myself. I even have an old smartphone where I have all my music several playlists to avoid getting distracted by the messages, calls and whatsoever on my other smartphone.

I was on a transition from wheelchair to crutches, so I reduced my physical activities drastically in the past few weeks. I will finally restart my activities tomorrow, as I got rid of both wheelchair and crutches. I’m confident that I can train my upper body and one of the legs, at least, and finally get relaxed after some training. I really miss that feeling since it improves the overall quality of my life. I can sleep better, concentrate more, eat more and perform relatively better in any daily tasks. That is, only when I train listening to some songs. If I try to train while listening to a podcast or reading during the breaks, I will not focus on either gym or language stuff.

Aside from the working out, I will need to do the rehabilitation which I'd like to include some cycling. I have no choice, but to do the rehabilitation for about 9 consecutive months; or I will never fully recover forever. 9 months is just one goal. I might need 1 year or more. So, instead of dropping half languages, I will need to re-adapt to my new schedule. For instance, I'm planning to do some cycling 3 times a week for about 10 to 20 minutes. In my gym, there is a personal and very small screen where I can watch TV. I'm not interested in TV Japanese TV shows (as I can watch them on the weekends...). So, I might use around 10-15 minutes of cycling to study Mongolian and Indonesian, though I know I might not be fully concentrated, or eventually listen to a podcast or read in some of my most skilled languages.

But in normal conditions, I'd stick to 40-60 minutes of work out and study after the session. :)
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MacGyver
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Re: Fitness anyone?

Postby MacGyver » Mon Jan 21, 2019 4:39 am

I go to the gym 5-6 times a week. When doing weights I might do some Duolingo or Memrise between sets, but not more than that. If I am doing cardio, no language learning is happening. I am usually pushing too hard to be able to focus to any great degree.

Definitely though, by staying fit, eating healthy and getting enough sleep, language learning becomes much easier and enjoyable.
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Re: Fitness anyone?

Postby Ani » Mon Jan 21, 2019 6:22 am

MacGyver wrote: I might do some Duolingo or Memrise between sets,


I'm amazed at what people do between sets these days :lol:
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But there's no sense crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.


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